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Run the Algorithm Viewer as a Docker container

Source: vignettes/howto-docker.Rmd
howto-docker.Rmd

Audience: Anyone who wants to run the Algorithm Viewer without installing R, or who wants a reproducible, self-contained deployment.

Prerequisites: Docker installed and running. A local clone of the algorithm-viewer repository (the Dockerfile builds the image from the repository contents).

What you will have at the end: the viewer running in a container and reachable at http://localhost:3838.

Why Docker

The Docker image bundles R, all package dependencies, and the app into one self-contained environment. Nothing needs to be installed on the host except Docker itself, and the container behaves identically across Windows, macOS, and Linux.

Option A — Docker Compose (simplest)

From the root of your clone of the repository:

docker compose up --build

This builds the image (the first build takes several minutes while R packages compile) and starts the container. The included docker-compose.yml maps container port 3838 to host port 3838.

Open http://localhost:3838 in your browser.

To stop it, press Ctrl+C, or from another terminal:

docker compose down

Option B — Build and run manually

If you prefer plain Docker commands:

docker build -t algorithm-viewer .
docker run -p 3838:3838 algorithm-viewer

Then open http://localhost:3838.

What the container runs

The image starts the app bound to all interfaces so it is reachable from outside the container, equivalent to:

algorithm.viewer::run_app(
  config = "/srv/shiny-server/algorithm-viewer/inst/extdata/config.yaml",
  host = "0.0.0.0",
  port = 3838
)

By default it serves the built-in HTNPoRT configuration.

Serving your own algorithm

To serve your own algorithm instead of HTNPoRT, make its files available inside the container and point the app at your config. The simplest approach is to mount a directory containing your config and algorithm files as a volume, then override the startup command to use your config. For example:

docker run -p 3838:3838 \
  -v /path/to/your/algorithm:/data \
  algorithm-viewer \
  R -e "algorithm.viewer::run_app(config='/data/config.yaml', host='0.0.0.0', port=3838)"

Because the viewer reads files from disk, the mounted directory must contain the config file and every algorithm YAML and CSV it references, with the relative paths intact. See View your own algorithms and the Application configuration reference.

Changing the port

The container listens on 3838. To expose it on a different host port, change the left side of the -p mapping. For example, to reach it at http://localhost:8080:

docker run -p 8080:3838 algorithm-viewer

Using a prebuilt image

The project publishes a Docker image via GitHub Actions (see the docker-publish workflow). If you want to run a published image rather than build it yourself, pull it from the project’s container registry and run it with the same -p 3838:3838 mapping.

Next steps